Before there is widespread adoption of any 5G technologies, there comes the need for extensive research and development of the networking and signal management approaches that will enable them. Currently considered one of the leading enablers, small-cell, millimeter-wave, and massive Multi-input Multi-output (MIMO) systems, are creating the need for network architects to not only know the comprehensive infrastructure design requirements of MIMO, but also the flexible and customizable signal testing solutions that these multi-path networks will require. This tech brief will provide an understanding of the various key factors of MIMO architectures, and introduce some novel ideas for testing and development of your own MIMO systems.